Movie: How to Use the Dial Phone

21 December 2004 · 0 comments

I knew about the Internet Archive Way Back Machine, but hadn’t realised the full scope of the Archive, which also contains texts, images, movies and sound files. One of the movies is How to Use the Dial Phone, a training film from 1927 for users of the new dial telephones. This 7 minute long silent [...]

 

I knew about the Internet Archive Way Back Machine, but hadn’t realised the full scope of the Archive, which also contains texts, images, movies and sound files.

One of the movies is How to Use the Dial Phone, a training film from 1927 for users of the new dial telephones. This 7 minute long silent movie uses text, cartoon characters and real actors to explain very thoroughly how to look up a number in the phone book, how to dial and what to do if you have a problem. My favourite part is the “intermittent burring” sound, illustrated by a Brr-Brr vibrating in mid-air.

I watched the 8Mb postage-stamp sized MP4, but there are other options, all the way up to an almost 200Mb MPEG2.

The archives are huge. Go browse and you’ll likely find something to interest you.

[Via Search Engine Watch.]

Clip to Evernote

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